I decided in August that I would like to make a quilt.  So me being me, and having never made a quilt before, I decided why make one of those 4 sided quilts and use some pattern someone else made?  NOOOOO  I had to go design my own and have 8 sides and a stuffed pillow on it.  Not the easiest beginners project I don't think.  But hey its done! 

The idea was I wanted to make a pumpkin quilt for my boyfriends mother, she loves pumpkins and halloween.  Then I had this brain storm to make it pumpkin shaped! oh wait lets add a stem and leaves that's stuffed like a pillow.  It also turned out smaller than I planned, I forgot the 1/4 inch that came off each of my squares, but its still a good sized lap blanket.

My machine would not do the main quilting part, so the "quilting" bit is all hand done. It is designed like a pumpkin vines with leaves that I free hand drew then quilted (no patterns).  The top is machine pieced and the binding of course with the machine.  I am sure this has broken a lot of "quilting" rules, but I am not one much for rules.  I just had my idea and went at it.  Next I think I will make a giant star, I think it might make me cry!

enough talk PICTURES!



Laid out:


the stem:


The quilted bits, sorry theya re kinda hard to see






The Back:

So I work at a dog kennel while going to school for Veterinary Tech.  And it gets kinda cold running in and out all day.  So I decided that i would make a new work hoodie (ish.)  I bought a cheap hoodie, some scrap white material and white paint.  Cut out some ears put them on the hood, and used freezer paper to make paw prints on the arms.

Kinda simple but I am pleased with the out come.  Work will have a great laugh.  (they already think I am nuts)
 
Debating putting on a pink collar and tag?  hehe yeah nuts...

I have always wanted a hooded cape, but the ones at the ren faire are too expensive and well, just not me.  I am not a person to go running around in a black cape lined with crushed velvet all winter.  SO I made my own, and in my own style.  I started with this pattern
http://home.clara.net/arianrhod/Aldebaran/DoItYourself/Cloak02.html
and  did a ton of modifications so that it would work with my material and be reversable.  Plus I shortened it.  Corduroy to the floor might be a bit heavy. 
I used corduroy for one side and blue snowflake fleece for the other.  I had a scrap of super soft white fleece that I used as trim. 
I still need a clasp for it though.  And I doubt I will wear the snow flake side out, its pretty um snow flakey.
I am pretty pleased with it, and all together took me about 6 hours to do. 
anyway enough bla bla bla
PICTURES:











so what do you think? 

So I needed a halloweeny thing to take to a party.  But I also had an idea for some really cool cheese cakes.  So I got these food color pens at the store and they are just awsome!  I got to decorate the tops of my cheese cakes without destroying them!  YAY!!!   They are like paintbrushes for food. 
So maybe I did not "make" the cheese cake but I did think of the idea and assemble them!
The bottom layer is the "suprise"  the yellow cheese cake has apple toppings under the cheese cake and the blue cake has cherry.
really simple, just put the toppings in the night before, covered well, frooze.  So that when the cake is added to the top the fruit doe not mix. The next day added my cheese cake topping to the top.  Because you cant have cheese cake without fruit topping, or well bottoming!!! 
I like how my spidies turned out too. 

I have the second doggy costume done.  A little green frog with blue eyes.  I didn't have black for the pupils so I used blue.  I also did not have plain white but a left over sparkle white.  I also accidentally put the legs on facing the wrong direction, but cant really tell.  But it turned out much cutter then I had expected.  The pattern is from my Doggy Knits book.

I about died of cuteness when I got it on her, and she did not even try to take the head band off. 

So anyway, lots of pics here. 


the top


completed project on the little girl

more...

more...


I am thinking of adding maybe a pink bow, or a little princess crown so people know she is a girl...  what do you think?

My friends decided about two or three weeks ago they would like to get married this weekend.   So I threw together this throw for them.  I made one similar for another wedding last month, same materials.  I did the monogramming on my brother sewing machine, free hand with a wood cross stitch thing and the zig zag stitch.  No fancy fancy programmable machines for me! The nine did get a little funky though.  Then the to keep the throw together I just used a multiple stitch zig zag in three rows.  Simple enough.  I like the non traditional kinda wedding gift thing, no white for my gifts!
I think when I get married I may end up getting a million blankets as gifts now!!!



The zig zag stitch thing I used.


The colors are a little brighter than in the pictures too. 

I finally finished the halloween costume for my dog! Yeah its a little early but I still have one to make! 
Its umm... a little big.  I need to reattach the cape its kinda crooked.  Plus I need to take out the stitching and take in the sides.  He is such an oddly shaped dog. 
All in all I think its cute  






and the model himself...

I went on a road trip with my sister a few weeks back, we traveled from Indiana (a few states) South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, then down to Yellow Stone.  We both took tons of pics.  I probably have over a few hundred, but once and a while I stopped hitting the capture button long enough to think about my photo and actually try to take a good one.  The following are some of my favorites that i actually made an attempt at doing well.  I plan to print and frame these I like them so much.

this one I took at a state park just inside Minnesota


This one is I believe just entering South Dakota, we drove all night through super flat lands and as the sun was coming up we cam across this super hilly valley and stopped for photo op.  There was a little town and a river, but this is the one I like the best.


This I took while exploring the bad lands, my sister and I where walking a dry creek bed.


the next two are also from the Bad Lands.  A huge storm was coming in as we where about half way through, so of course had to stop for photos of it!




Then off to Mount Rushmore, we had friends of my sisters take us up the "back way" to see Mount Rushmore which was pretty cool.  I got tons of the "typical" shots just for memory sake.  But this one amuses me and I want it printed also.


Ah back roads Montana, we took a random road some 20 miles into the mountains.


and OMG a MOOSE!!!!! I love my shot here.


Finlay Firehole falls


hope you enjoy them

First off I LOVE Walmart scraps   I made this ferret cage cover with all cheap Walmart scraps.  YAY! 
Anyway, so I needed a cage cover for my ferrets and was just using a Carebear blanket I had.  So at Walmart I found this care bear quilt scrap super cheap and I like to buy out all the fleece scraps (make great ferret/dog blankets.) So today I threw together this cage cover and I think it turned out way cute    I cut up my scraps to make about 16 x 21 inch blocks for the sides and top since I didn't have two or even three pieces that fully covered the sides and top.  Sewed them all together and then sewed them to the care bear quilt piece.  And ta-da cage cover.  There is no back piece because I want air flow to get in there still. 
 


The inside of the care bear piece is filled with care bear stars too.

and happy sleeping ferrets


Thanks for looking

I think I have the right place to post this, its a for the home thing/wedding thing.  I don't know I was confused.  ANYWAY!
My friend got married last week and I had no idea what to give her so I asked.  She said "you bought a sewing machine, I need a new throw, the dog ate my old one"  so I thought, and went OK I will make a throw for her.  Its a fairly simple one (I am new to sewing.) I got this awesome plaid material from walmart thats not just dyed plaid but each individual string is dyed then wooven together, and it was only $1 a yard.  Needless to say I have a ton of it now!  and got some soft matching green fleece for the back and went home and figured out how to make my blanket.  I didn't really measure I just held it up and went I will make it this big! then I thought hey lets make is special and I learned how to use the monogram feature of my sewing maching.  Was kinda hard to do free hand but I figured it out.  I also had a lot of help from the pets in making her throw. 
and I took lots of pics because I know that my friend would want to see them.

My helpers:  there is another ferret hiding under the fleece

Opus holding down the ends for me.  he loves to help.


my first attempt at monogramming ( I practiced a lot first)


Lots and lots of strings I took a needle and tucked them all away into the blanket before putting the back on, then glued them in place! 


my first blood, I stabbed myself with the machine needle while the machine was off.  And I always wondered how people did it, now I know.....  hard to see the owwy, but its there and it hurt!


the finished throw.  Its hard to see the monogramming because of the color of the thread, but thats OK because it also hides the really bad parts of it too! 


the back side.  I decided to sew the extra lines (?) to keep the blanket from bunching funny. 



I really liked the throw, I didn't want to give it up!  But since it had their initials and name plus wedding date I guess it would have been silly to keep it myself!  But they loved it, and promised to keep the dog away from it!  It was the only thing they got with their wedding date on it.